Pullet willingly getting feathers pulled out?

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ldirk7

ldirk7

Songster
May 5, 2021
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SW Montana
Hi all, I am a new chicken keeper and have a flock of 5 chickens that are between 10.5-11.5 weeks old. I believe all are pullets.
I have some coop cameras set up, and tonight I witnessed an odd scene- two of my pullets had a flappy stand off (happening all the time as they establish their order), but it ended with one pullet (Rosie, light Brahma) pecking at another pullet’s neck (Annette, houdan). Annette just kind of stood there and let it happen? Eventually more birds joined in. I have never witnessed this before and I check in on them more than I care to admit.

Is this bullying? Like I mentioned, I’ve seen flappy standoffs/stares, chasing, pecking, etc. that all sounded normal based on what I read, this was different. I checked on Annette, and she is missing feathers on the front of her neck. Is there something I should do? Thank you in advance!
(I tried to attach the video from Imgur, hopefully it works.)


https://imgur.com/a/2xuNRpm
 
ldirk7 said:
Hi all, I am a new chicken keeper and have a flock of 5 chickens that are between 10.5-11.5 weeks old. I believe all are pullets.
I have some coop cameras set up, and tonight I witnessed an odd scene- two of my pullets had a flappy stand off (happening all the time as they establish their order), but it ended with one pullet (Rosie, light Brahma) pecking at another pullet’s neck (Annette, houdan). Annette just kind of stood there and let it happen? Eventually more birds joined in. I have never witnessed this before and I check in on them more than I care to admit.

Is this bullying? Like I mentioned, I’ve seen flappy standoffs/stares, chasing, pecking, etc. that all sounded normal based on what I read, this was different. I checked on Annette, and she is missing feathers on the front of her neck. Is there something I should do? Thank you in advance!
(I tried to attach the video from Imgur, hopefully it works.)


https://imgur.com/a/2xuNRpm
Click to expand...
They are cleaning eachother off
 
I'm hardly an expert, but it looked to me like she wasn't happy with it at all. I've read that some of the sweeter, gentler breeds are more likely to get picked on. Having multiple birds gang up on one would definitely concern me. Even if they're not actually bullying her, I'd be worried about what would happen next time around. Do you have a means of separating her for a while in a look-don't-touch situation? Possibly with other gentle girls?
 
Hi we used to have a polish in with our normal chickens a while ago and she was getting her head feathers pulled out. So we made her a separate coop, got more polishes, and they lived a happy life together. But I don't know if you have room to do that so it is just a suggestion. Is the brahma the only one plucking out feathers?
 

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